j7uy5 | June 18, 2009This method, if it pans out, could not only be clean, it could make the
environment even cleaner.
Jonathan Trent, the lead research scientist on the Spaceship Earth
project at NASA Ames Research Center, has been working on a method to
produce oil from algae. Their Algal Biofuels Team appears to be
making progress.
style="display: inline;">
href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/features/2009/clean_energy_042209.html">NASA
Envisions "Clean Energy" From Algae Grown in Waste Water
NASA scientists have proposed an ingenious and remarkably
resourceful process to produce "clean…
j7uy5 | June 17, 2009When I first heard about the American Medical Association (AMA)
opposing Obama's health care reform, I was troubled. I almost
wrote a post about it, but by the time I got home, I found that others
had beaten me to it.
href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/06/revolutionary_medicine.php">Revere,
for example, appears to have written before work,
posting at 6:46AM. That's dedication.
But it the interim, I've come up with a different angle. Part
of it comes from an article on Medpage Today (free registration):
href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AMA/14691"…
j7uy5 | June 16, 2009This is one of those "interesting, wonder if it'll ever pan out"
studies. So far it has been presented at a meeting, but not
published. The study was summarized in an article on
Medpage Today (free registration):
href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/APSS/14689#ayk">APSS:
Depression and Insomnia May Be Genetically Linked
SEATTLE, June 12 -- Insomnia and mood disorders may share a
common genetic pathway, which could explain both depression and
wakefulness observed in teens, researchers here said.
In a study of more than 1,400 twin pairs, about a third of those who
were…
j7uy5 | June 9, 2009Market Folly writes of a new hedge fund strategy, and asks if there are
any more ideas
href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/141982-hedge-funds-latest-idea-investing-in-lawsuits">like
this:
We came across this interesting piece in Dealbook the other
day and thought it was very intriguing. Simply put: hedge funds are now
investing in lawsuits. The premise is pretty simple: they invest in one
side of the lawsuit and get a share of the winnings (if, of course,
they win the case)...
...If you think about it, it makes sense. These investors essentially
'bankroll' a litigation team, thus…
j7uy5 | June 7, 2009In 2008, we
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7574684.stm">were
informed that a kind of cloud formation had been named: the mammatus
formation, so-called because it resembles a breast. Sort
of. Whatever.
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7574684.stm">
A new development is more serious. The
href="http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/">Cloud Appreciation Society
has suggested that the name asperatus be given to clouds that
portray a particular kind of turbulence.
Flickr photo by Vince Perritano, Creative Commons license
Other, more…
j7uy5 | June 3, 2009Business Matters has posted interviews
about the financial crisis. these interviews provide a good
overview of the origin of the crisis, plus some clues as to where we
are headed. The first interview is with
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts">Paul Craig
Roberts. Roberts was an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
in the Reagan Administration. The second interview is with
Ilargi, one of the pseudonymous authors of the blog,
href="http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/">The Automatic Earth.
They have different perspectives, but similar conclusions.
Basically,…
j7uy5 | June 1, 2009Some may recall Brodmann
Area 25
(a part of the brain also known as the subgenual area or area
subgenualis). It was mentioned by Orli Van Mourik (
id="a028464"
href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurontic/2006/08/much_ado_about_area_25.php">Much
Ado About Area 25) in 2006, and by me in 2008 (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2008/09/update_on_deep_brain_stimulati.php">Update
on Deep Brain Stimulation). David Dobbs profiled one of the
key researchers, Helen Mayberg, (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/smoothpebbles/2006/08/neurologist_helen_mayberg_in_s.php">Neurologist
Helen…
j7uy5 | May 28, 2009It has come to my attention that Kalamazoo is on the map, again.
The last time was is 1942, when the Glen Miller Orchestra played
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%28I%27ve_Got_a_Gal_In%29_Kalamazoo">I've
Got A Gal In
Kalamazoo (lyrics).
Now, Ratebeer.com has included TWO Kalamazoo beers on their
href="http://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/Ratings-Top50.asp">"top rated"
list:
Westvleteren Abt 12
Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter
Three Floyds Oak Aged Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout
Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout
AleSmith Speedway Stout
AleSmith Barrel Aged Speedway…
j7uy5 | May 28, 2009Last night I heard a snippet of an interview with some Senator, who
expressed fear that the Supreme Court candidate, Sonia Sotomayor, would
let her feelings interfere with her judgment. Evidently, this
was based upon Obama's characterization of Ms. Sotomayor as "emphatic."
Although I can't recall who the Senator was, these sentiments
are captured in
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/29memo.html">
the following:
Mr. Hatch, a longtime Judiciary Committee member,
said he would focus on whether the judge is committed to deciding cases
based on the law, not "personal…
j7uy5 | May 25, 2009Courtesy of Chart of the Day...
href="http://www.chartoftheday.com/20090522.htm?T">
Click on the graphs to see the Chart of the Day explanations
for the data.
The top chart shows the aggregate earnings, over time, of the companies
in the S&P 500 Index. The second chart shows the ratio
between the aggreagte price of the stock, and the earnings of the
companies.
Oversimplified view: A low price-to-earnings ratio means that you are
not paying much, to get a share of a company that is earning a
lot. A high P:E ratio means that you are paying a lot for
companies that aren't…
j7uy5 | May 21, 2009Traumatic Brain Injury
href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/08/traumatic_brain_injury_on_the.php">has
been called the "signature injury" of the Iraq War, due to the
reported high prevalence of the injury there. This is in contrast
to previous wars. It's not that head injury is necessarily more
common; what is more common is for soldiers to sustain such injuries
and survive.
The Pentagon has recognized this, and (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2007/05/signing_a_check_for_iraqs_sign.php">reportedly)
is addressing it. But now, a paper published in NEJM…
j7uy5 | May 18, 2009This is a continuation from
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2009/05/peak_oil_imminent_public_healt.php">last
time. Sort of. Last time I wrote about some things from
a recent program at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of
Public Health, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. I took the material from one of the many
presentations. since then, I have looked thought the slides from
the other presentations. It turns out that the majority of the
material relates more to Peak Oil than to Public Health. Perhaps
that is because most of…
j7uy5 | May 13, 2009A post at Energy Bulletin recaps a recent presentation at the
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, in
conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
href="http://www.energybulletin.net/node/48895">The post is U.S.
public health community begins discussing peak oil.
The presentation was:
href="http://www.jhsph.edu/preparedness/events/eventscalendar.html">Peak
Oil: Implications for Disaster Preparedness & Response (the
link goes to the event calendar, so it probably won't be valid after a
while. The archives are
href="http://www.jhsph.edu…
j7uy5 | May 10, 2009Revere has an alarming post about one potential problem. This
could occur if there is a serious influenza pandemic:
href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/05/swine_flu_breaking_the_acute_c.php">Swine
flu: breaking the acute care system
[H]hospitals and emergency departments have been shrinking, while their
patient populations have been growing. The Institute of Medicine
calculated in 2006 that ER visits rose by 26% between 1992 and 2003,
from 89.8 million to 114 million in a year, while 425 emergency
departments and 703 hospitals closed and the number of hospital beds in
use…
j7uy5 | May 9, 2009Patti Smith reads the Declaration of Independence, in a rousing
performance. She follows it with an indictment of George W.
Bush. She speaks in English, but with German subtitles.
In a way, I'm hesitant to dignify Bush by mentioning him on my
site. But the performance is worth watching.
Lest we forget.
This is from pattismith.net,
which apparently does not have direct links to individual tems.
You have to scroll down to find this item.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
From Steven Sebring:
In honor of the upcoming election we invite you to check out this
indictment clip from the film…
j7uy5 | May 8, 2009I've been trying to figure this out. I don't think I need to
include any links to the evidence, because it's all over the place.
Some people think there is a ridiculous amount of hysteria
about H1N1/2009, others think people aren't worried enough.
It is abundantly clear that nobody can predict the future; nobody knows
if there will be a pandemic, and if so, how lethal it would be.
It is not even possible to make a meaningful guess.
What perplexes me are these two questions:
Why do people get so emotionally invested in their assessment of the
risk?
Why do they feel a need to criticize…
j7uy5 | May 5, 2009Not sure what to make of this, as the prediction appears to be based entirely upon the intuition of an experienced pediatric infectious disease specialist. It is reported on Medscape (open access, free registration required).
PAS 2009: H1N1 Flu Predicted to Wane and Reemerge in Fall
Martha Kerr
May 4, 2009 (Baltimore, Maryland) -- Pediatric infectious diseases specialists and public health experts used the stage of the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting to update their colleagues on the latest statistics and projections on the H1N1 "swine flu" outbreak.
"I believe that we will…
j7uy5 | May 4, 2009The Union of Concerned Scientists
has issued a press release:
href="http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ucs-gives-obama-high-marks-on-0229.html">UCS
Gives Obama High Marks on Scientific Integrity for First 100 Days.
Granted, after suffering through eight years of the Bush II
Administation, they'd probably give high marks to Pee Wee Herman.
They believe that Obama has taken a personal interest in restoring
integrity to the interface between science and politics. While
acknowledging that he hasn't and couldn't take a lot of action in his
first 100 days in office, they express the…
j7uy5 | May 1, 2009Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation: How Greed and Easy Money
Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy, has a
nice, terse, thought-provoking post on his blog: The Big Picture:
href="http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/05/us-vs-europe-who-is-the-welfare-state/">US
vs Europe: Who is the Welfare State?
By Barry Ritholtz - May 1st, 2009, 10:25AM
Today is May Day, and while International Workers' Day (Labour Day in
the UK), means little in the USA, its a big holiday in Europe. Banks
and markets are closed on the continent, (England celebrates on Monday).
Speaking with Mike…
j7uy5 | April 30, 2009If you encounter a web site that contains malware (virus, trojan,
etc.), how do you report it? I had a devil of a time finding
out. A friend had forwarded a suspicious email to me. The
email contained a link. The link indicated that it would take you
to a text file that explained a finding about a chance of an asteroid
hitting the Earth next year. the file ended with .txt.exe,
obviously a bad thing.
So I downloaded it, using Linux, of course (the .exe would not be able
to do anything without me affirming that the file was to be opened with
WINE, which I did not plan on doing). I…